


Count Them

by Sable_Scribe



Category: One Piece
Genre: Angst, Canonical Character Death, Gen, Nakamaship, Post-War Arc
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-23
Updated: 2015-03-23
Packaged: 2018-03-19 05:26:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 584
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3598038
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sable_Scribe/pseuds/Sable_Scribe
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Lost in the pain of his failure, Luffy forgets. <br/>Then someone reminds him that there is something else he's fighting for.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Count Them

**Author's Note:**

> Characters are Oda's. I regret nothing.

It hurts. Everything hurts. It’s dark and heavy and painful and every breath you take feels like it’s full of shattered glass. You can’t see through the darkness, can’t think through the pain, and you are so sure that it will never be light and good again, not now. Not with him gone.

He’d always protected you, kept you safe and warm and happy when no one else could or would. He was always there, even if he wasn’t with you, burning just as surely as the sun shines overhead.

He always protected you, and it was your turn to protect him. Your turn to keep him safe.

And you failed.

You freed him sure, but then he died in your arms, doing what he always did.

Protecting you.

Jinbei is screaming at you but you barely hear him, barely hear anything around the pain and the dark and the sound of your own screaming. You can’t do this, because he’s gone and nothing will ever be right again and you _failed_ him when he _needed_ you…

You’re fighting with Jinbei still, angry and in pain, and he slams you up against a tree not to prevent you from hurting _him_ , but from hurting _yourself_. You know that, you know that, but still you can’t hear it, can’t hear anything until suddenly you can.

Because Jimbei makes everything stop with two words.

“–What remains?!”

Those words pull you back, like a lifeline yanking taut. A reminder.

It’s still dark, you’re still in pain, but suddenly it’s quiet, you can think again, and staring down at your hands those words echo in your head.

_What remains?_

And a voice, somewhere in the back of your mind, whispers to you.

_Count them._

A swordsman with green hair and three swords, with a will harder than steel and a heart purer than gold.

_One._

A navigator who yells like a mother and whines like a sister, who smells of tangerines and drawing ink.

_Two._

A sniper who lies to lift spirits and not to fool, who’s afraid of nearly everything and yet is more courageous than the giants he admires.

_Three._

A cook that smells like cigarette smoke and the spices he works with, who fawns like an idiot but whose food makes the soul itself lighter than air.

_Four._

A doctor with a big hat and a bigger heart, with the wonder of a child and the knowledge of a sage, that likes cotton candy and having his fur brushed.

_Five._

An archaeologist too smart for them all but who never makes them feel stupid, who saves her warmest smiles for their antics and the family she’d never had before.

_Six._

A shipwright with an iron body and a soft heart, that works late into the night and rises early in the morning, and talks to the ship sometimes when he thinks no one is listening.

_Seven._

A musician that’s always ready with a song to cheer them up or calm them down, who is more human than any of them, most of the time, never to be confused with the walking dead.

_Eight._

 

And you have it now. Your reasons. To keep moving, to go forward. You still hurt, but the dark is gone, chased away by their bright souls, the souls of your friends, who wait for you even now.

And how could you forget that? That you have something so precious waiting for you?

Get up now Luffy.

It’s time to go home.

 

 


End file.
